Setting Putting Us There What Is Setting Setting

Setting Putting Us There

What Is Setting? Setting is the time and place of a story or play. A story’s setting may include • its geographical location • a specific time of day • a time period • the weather

How Is Setting Created? Writers use details that appeal to the senses to create a story’s setting. © 2003 clipart. com What do the characters taste? smell? hear? feel? see?

Setting and Mood The setting can contribute to a story’s atmosphere, or mood, and affect the way we feel. I was very sleepy after lunch, because at home we always took a siesta. It was usually a pleasant time of day, with the bedroom darkened against the harsh afternoon sun, the drifting off into sleep with the sound of Mother’s voice reading a story in one’s mind, and, finally, the shrill, fussy voice of the ayah waking one for tea. from “By Any Other Name” by Santha Rama Rau From “By Any Other Name” from Gifts of Passage by Santha Rama Rau. Copyright 1951 and renewed © 1979 by Santha Rama Rau. Originally appeared in The New Yorker. Reproduced by permission of Harper. Collins Publishers.

Setting and Tone The setting can also express tone—the writer’s feelings toward a subject or character. The fifth night we passed St. Louis, and it was like the whole world lit up. In St. Petersburg they used to say there was twenty or thirty thousand people in St. Louis, but I never believed it till I see that wonderful spread of lights at two o’clock that still night. There warn’t a sound there; everybody was asleep. from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Setting and Character A story’s setting can help reveal a character’s personality. Sometimes the character shapes his or her environment. At other times, the environment shapes the character. It was when I stood before her, avoiding her eyes, that I took note of the surrounding objects in detail, and saw that her watch had stopped at twenty minutes to nine, and that a clock in the room had stopped at twenty minutes to nine. from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Setting and Conflict In some stories, the setting provides the main conflict and can directly affect a story’s meaning. The ledge, he saw, measuring it with his eye, was about as wide as the length of his shoe, and perfectly flat. And every fifth row of brick in the face of the building, he remembered—leaning out, he verified this—was indented half an inch, enough for the tips of his fingers, enough to maintain balance easily. It occurred to him that if this ledge and wall were only a yard above ground—as he knelt at the window staring out, this thought was the final confirmation of his intention—he could move along the ledge indefinitely. from “Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket” by Jack Finney From “Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket” by Jack Finney. Copyright © 1956 by Crowell Collier Publishing Company; copyright renewed © 1984 by Jack Finney. Reproduced by permission of Don Congdon Associates, Inc.

What Have You Learned? Are the statements below true or false? ______ True 1. Writers create setting through details. False ______ 2. Setting rarely contributes to a story’s mood. ______ True 3. The setting is the time and place in which a story occurs. ______ True 4. Characters can have conflict with the setting.

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